The Gamble Life

Why do I do this to myself?

In a moment of complete insanity I taught Gus how to play the card game War*.  Really.  And no, I do not know what I was thinking.  He was fooling around with some cards, and wanted to play a game, and I was telling him about how when I was a kid I used to spend a lot of time playing card games by myself. 

He kind of looked at me and then said "Like Go Fish?  How could you play that by yourself?" in a very oh-dear-my-mother-is-odd-and-possibly-fragile kind of voice.  So then I said, well, you know, I mostly played War.  So then I showed him how it was played.  And since then he's wanted to play every single day.  Oh my goodness, that game could not be more boring and soporific.  And let me tell you, I live for battles so I can make sure to lose them and hopefully move the game along a little more quickly.  I don't know who invented this game, but yikes, it never ends.

Our last game, with me throwing it in every possible way, lasted over 45 minutes.

*For those who don't know, divide the deck evenly between two players.  Each turns their top card over, highest card wins and that player takes both cards.  When the same card is played by both, three more cards are played face down and a fourth face up.  Highest card takes all cards.  This game goes on forever.

Summer Camp Home Edition: Dinosaurs

So...dinosaurs may not have been the best topic choice.  Gus already knows so much about dinosaurs and we've read many, many books on dinosaurs, and even own two seemingly exhaustive dinosaur encyclopedias.  We are going to do some dinosaur crafts later today, if any are especially great I'll take pictures and post about them, the book I got is Crafts for Kids Who Are Learning About Dinosaurs, and I think it is geared to a slightly younger child.

Anyway, we did get several new dinosaur books from the library and read them, but the highlight of our week was a trip to the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, which has a dinosaur exhibit including fossils found in North Carolina.  We went yesterday and we had a good time, but that is because they also had a neat ocean/whale exhibit.  Gus did NOT like the dinosaur exhibit.  They had piped in "dinosaur" noises which were loud and never-ending and he hated them.  As a result he spent the entire three minutes we lasted in that exhibit with his hands over his ears saying "hurry up."  Oh well. 

We got to touch a chinchilla which was really fun...so soft, and did you know they die if they spend time in over 80 degree weather?!  Abe enjoyed the aquariums which were low to the ground, and we all enjoyed eating in the museum cafe. 

We'll wrap up dinosaur week with some crafts this afternoon and perhaps some more reading.  We considered doing another archaeological dig but decided it's too warm and buggy (the mosquitoes are brutal in our yard right now) so we'll go for a walk instead, or to the pool!

This is the skeleton of a blue whale.  It was really amazing.

Abe enjoying the exploratory room at the museum.

Both boys loved the aquariums.

This is a cashew tree!  I'd never seen one before.

T-Ball

This post is heavy on pictures, light on words, because we are rushing off to do some Dinosaur Camp activities.  Gus had his first T-Ball game on Tuesday night and it was really fun.

I wasn't exactly sure what to expect since I never played T-Ball and have never been to a game.  I think by luck, but for the first inning Gus was in a great field position and got to field several ground balls.  In the other innings he didn't get the ball, but hopefully he will again in tonight's game.

He also got on base with both of his at-bats and scored a run!  It was really fun and I love how professional he looks in his uniform.  So, indulge this mom with her many, many pictures of her son playing T-Ball!

Summer Camp Home Edition: "We're Making Rain!"

So I mentioned that last summer Gus went to camp (day camps) pretty much all summer long at the local museum.  They were wonderful; he really enjoyed them and learned a lot.  But camps are really expensive, he's gone pretty much all day, and there is a lot of driving involved.  This summer I really wanted things to be more relaxed and I wanted to spend more time with Gus myself, and I wanted to save money.

So we sat down together and came up with a whole list of "Camp at Home" topic ideas.  Last week was our first official week and our topic was weather.  I bet you think I came up with that topic, right?  Nope, that was Gus.  I never would have thought weather was interesting enough for camp, but I would have been wrong.

I got two books from the library:  Can It Rain Cats and Dogs? and Weather Projects for Young Scientists.  The first is a question and answer book covering many, many weather topics.  It was great for just flipping through and finding questions that interested us and then reading the answers.  But the real highlight of the week was the second book.  I was a bit worried that its projects would be too difficult or complicated for us to do at home without buying a lot of stuff, or that Gus wouldn't get the point of the projects.  My worry was wasted--the book is wonderful!

Here Gus is proving that air has weight; this was super easy as it only required three identical pieces of paper and a pencil.

While Abe colored.

This next was my personal favorite experiment.  Gus proved that air has mass and occupies space.  This was so easy and perfect; I loved it.  First you pour water through a funnel into a bottle and talk about where the air that had been in the bottle went.  Then you create an air-tight seal (we used playdoh) around the neck of the bottle and the funnel and try again to pour water in.  Amazingly the water fills the funnel and stays put.  It was SO COOL! 

Here's Gus excitedly talking about how the water couldn't go in because the air couldn't get out!

Turns out this next project may have been Gus' favorite.  We showed, in water, how a hurricane moves.

We also explored the power of the sun by testing to see 1-what the sun will do to a piece of construction paper, and 2-what kinds of things will block some or all of the sun.

And really fun, I bought a package of Sun Prints and Gus made several.  He hasn't decided what to do with his finished sun prints...some kind of collage probably.

Finally, we did two experiments exploring the water cycle.  We looked at how hot and cold water react differently to a cold air source.

And we made rain!  Gus wasn't sure what this project was going to show (I didn't tell him, I just told him the steps), but we had just finished reading and talking about the water cycle, and as we were checking on our project, he figured it out:  "We're making rain!"

I am pretty sappy when it comes to seeing my kids learn, but man, this was really, really fun.  I can see how home schooling parents can enjoy themselves. 

This was all really easy, nothing too structured or too formal about any of it.  And I really do think Gus learned a few new things.  Even if your kids are in camp or school there is no reason you can't pick this book up, or a similar one, from your library or bookstore.  You'll have fun!

Book Review: Outliers

Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell

My review

I've enjoyed all of Malcolm Gladwell's books--he's really good at identifying the things we all believe in (how we make decisions, how we become successful, etc.) and then unpacking them to show that our assumptions are not accurate.

Outliers is another great book. I loved each chapter, right up until the last, which is horribly out of place, disturbing, and should have been cut from the book.

Whether he's investigating how culture affects our "innate" talents, what it takes to become an expert, or how the stories of success leave out so much the writing is interesting, and the people fascinating.  Some chapters go beyond eye-opening to frightening, like the chapter on air travel.  And some are truly heartbreaking, like the section on education.  I believe more than ever that we need to switch from a summer-based school calendar to a year-around school calendar.

I definitely recommend reading the book, but I also recommend skipping the last chapter. I know that is almost impossible to do that, but if I could go back I would skip it. The last chapter focuses on his own family, introduces no new concepts, is somewhat dull and predictable, and contains such a disturbingly graphic and upsetting image that it actually has pushed out some of the better parts of the book from my mind. And it is completely unnecessary and adds zilch to the book. Maybe he'll take it out of future additions, I hope so.

View all my reviews.

Book Review: Where Am I Wearing?

Where am I Wearing: A Global Tour to the Countries, Factories, and People that Make Our Clothes by Kelsey Timmerman

My review

The author travels around the world trying to visit the factories where his favorite clothes were made (Honduras, Cambodia, Bangladesh, China, India, and the US).

This is not a feel terrible about yourself, the world sucks and it's so bad you're better off not thinking about it book. You will not want to slit your wrists when you finish. This is good, because instead you will see that there are real things that can be done to improve garment workers lives and as the consumer, you can have a say in getting them done.

Timmerman's writing is an easy read, but a serious topic. He handles it seriously but realistically. This book is for folks who truly care about doing the right thing but don't want to feel like crap because they happened to be born really lucky.

For better or worse we are in a global economy and I appreciate knowing more about the working and living conditions of garment workers overseas. I appreciate having a more complete perspective when I make my decision about where to buy my clothes. I hope everyone is thinking about these issues.

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Book Review: Forbidden Fruit

Forbidden Fruit: Love Stories from the Underground Railroad by Betty De Ramus

My review

The subtitle simply does not adequately describe the incredible stories De Ramus relates here. The people whose stories she tells in Forbidden Fruit are mind-blowing; I can't imagine having to do the things they had to do. Some of the people had to walk for thousands of miles, until they reached Detroit or Canada; some shipped themselves folded up in small crates; some were chased by dogs. I suppose that the details of their escapes are not so different from the details of the escapes of many slaves prior to the Civil War, but De Ramus really brings the stories to life.

She focuses on slaves who were escaping in order to stay with their spouse or family, or to be with a man or woman with whom they'd fallen in love. Included are several stories of interracial couples, of former owners and slaves becoming couples, and of slave couples being separated.

The stories are very moving and so important. I think slavery is something a lot of people don't really think about anymore, but these stories are important, and remembering these people is important.

The book is enjoyable and inspirational. If you want to feel grateful for your life, for the fact that you have freedom and choices, not to mention food and clothes, you will after reading these stories. You may also be inspired to feel more grateful for your spouse and to reflect upon how lucky it is to have married the person you love and to have been able to do so. Of course, some of us still can't marry freely, but I'm hopeful that will change soon too.

View all my reviews.

Odds and Ends

The really modern five year old texts with his dad...while they are sitting side by side. 

This sweet little birds nest is in the newspaper box under out mailbox; a terrible place for a birds nest if I've ever seen one.  For a few days every time I went to check the mail a bird flew out at top speed squawking at me.  That has stopped and I think the nest has been abandoned.  We'll wait a few more weeks to make sure and then see if we can remove the nest intact for study.

Abe on a recent walk, mastering the Snack Trap.

I am planning a great write up of our first week of "Summer Camp:  Home Edition"; last summer Gus was in camp almost every week.  He absolutely loved it but it was really expensive, involved a lot of driving, and of course didn't provide that "lazy summer" feeling.  So this year I didn't sign him up for any camps at all.  We've got the pool, free bowling, and together he and I came up with a list of "camp" topics, one a week.  I get different books from the library, we do projects, and if there is something reasonably close to go see or do (that's related) we do that too.  It's very low-key with the emphasis on fun learning.  I am asking him to write and illustrate one entry in his journal each week, to keep his writing skills progressing.  I don't tell him what to write about but I'm hoping he'll pick something related to "camp" at least once or twice because I think that would be cool.

This week was weather, and I found two really great books at the library that have provided a lot of fun and interesting information and great projects (easy too!).  More tomorrow.

Another One Down...

He's lost another one already!  This one was super wiggly and we should have pulled it, but we didn't and he ended up swallowing it during lunch.  Oh my, that was a terrible, terrible thing.  Luckily we thought to make a playdoh tooth for the tooth fairy and also luckily she was willing to accept it as a substitute.

One of his new favorite past-times:  sticking his tongue through the double gap!  The dentist told me these two teeth were loose but I didn't expect them to go so quickly.  I wonder when he'll lose the top teeth?  And I especially wonder when he'll grow his permanent teeth!

Socks!

I am really interested in knitting socks these days.  I re-knit these grey socks for Chris and this time they fit perfectly.  I also prefer the knitting of cables to plain stockinette although next time I knit socks for Chris I'll leave the foot plain as the pattern is both wasted and probably uncomfortable inside his shoes.

Ravelry link.

And I finished two more pairs for me.  These socks, kiila, are fabulous!  They are knit toe-up, but with a gusset which makes the heel very nice.  I knit these in Knit Picks Essential, which is a very nice yarn, especially for the price, although my two skeins were not exactly the same color.  Oh well.

Ravelry link here.

And finally these butterfly socks.  The pattern and yarn is from Knitters Brewing.  I liked the yarn a lot and the pattern is nice, but a little frilly for my tastes.  This was a "mystery" pattern so I knew I was knitting socks, but no other details about the pattern.  I like the beads too, that was fun. 

Ravelry link here.